The Fave Four according to Stuff

Stuff’s focus on certified Passive House homes continues with a great round up by journalist Colleen Hawkes. She profiles her personal four favourite Passive House projects from 2022. Two are...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Healthy Homes Standards: the amendment explained

I’ve been asked several times for information on the New Zealand Healthy Homes Standards and how it impacts high-performance buildings. Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Passive House award winners featured in online flipbook

Check this out: a lovely flipbook with in-depth case studies of the projects from the Passive House Architectural awards in 2021. Lavishly illustrated, illuminating text and lots of drawings: this...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Hempcrete thermal modelling info

A residential project involving hemp as a building material is targeting Passive House certification in New Zealand. Hemp is a new material for the Sustainable Engineering team and it’s interesting...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Mary James’ work influential

Mary James is the director of publications at Passive House Accelerator in the US. She’s written multiple books on aspects of Passive House and her work New York Passive House...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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SEL provides PHPP support for PHINZ

Have you purchased the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software from PHINZ and got stuck with some aspects of energy modelling using this tool? PHINZ now has a PHPP support...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Passive House in the spotlight

Josefine Watterson’s Featherston home has just received certification but already it is doubtless the nation’s best known Passive House home, thanks to being featured on Grand Designs. Josefine is the...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Jan 2023

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Jessica Eyers moving to Sustainable Engineering Ltd

Jessica Eyers is joining Sustainable Engineering Ltd in 2023. Jessica needs little introduction to New Zealand’s Passive House community as she has been a certified Passive House designer for nearly...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Dec 2022

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Grand design at Tapu more than meets the eye

Stuff’s ranking of this season’s homes featured on Grand Designs is of course highly subjective and arguably not particularly useful. Sustainability did feature as a criteria but frankly was a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2022

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Renewal of your PH Designer/Consultant or PH Tradesperson Qualification

We’re often asked by accredited PH Designers / Consultants and Tradespersons how to renew their qualification. For PH Designers / Consultants there are two ways to renew your qualification: By...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2022

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“Grand” Passive House project in spotlight

Great to see certified Passive House performance getting some prime media coverage. It featured on Grand Designs this month, which was then written up by Stuff. It’s a large home...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2022

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Q&A on Passive House on Today FM podcast

Sustainable Engineering principal Jason Quinn featured in a long segment on the Design & Build Show. The interviewers did a good job of raising lots of the misconceptions that linger...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Mar 2026

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Better windows start now

It’s disappointing that the c have been delayed further. However, new levels of window thermal performance kicked in last week. So did new calculation methods. As of 3 Nov 2022...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2022

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New PH design process course is humming along

The first cohort of students in the Practical Passive House design process course are more than halfway through. Everyone in the group of 16 recently completed their first big assignment,...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Nov 2022

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New Aus Defence buildings to meet airtightness targets

Tip of the hat to Sean Maxwell for his LinkedIn post alerting me to some welcome developments in Australia. The Australian Department of Defence has revised its Building Energy Performance...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2022

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It’s not just about the money

Here’s a nice round up from Stuff, who talked to people living in Dunedin’s Toiora High Street co-housing development, which is certified Passive House. Stuff has covered this project well...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2022

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New video focuses on Fletcher’s LowCO project

It’s not often our work features in video format so it was fun to see Newsroom cover the LowCO (low-carbon) homes by Fletcher Living. Sustainable Engineering has been involved with...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2022

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No Passive House aquatic centre for NZ: yet

Australasian Leisure Management magazine has published a great article on Passive House aquatic facilities by Alex Head from Architecture HDT Christchurch and Sustainable Engineering’s Jason Quinn. As Alex explains, “aquatic...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Oct 2022

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